Algeria is among the largest gas producers in the world. It has significant reserves of this energy and is continually increasing its production capacities as well as its global market shares, particularly in Europe. However, national consumption swallows up a large part of this production.

Indeed, according to the Director of Energy Efficiency at the Commission for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency ( CEREFE ), Mourad Issiakhem, “national consumption of natural gas, in 2022, amounted to more than 51 .7 million TEP (including direct consumption, electricity needs and LPG extracted from the fields), which represented 54% of the primary production of natural gas, during the same year, which had been around 95, 8 million PET scans.

This official, who referred to the national energy balance of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, explains that this consumption is divided into direct consumption, which is around 27.56 million TEP (i.e. 53.31%), and a consumption dedicated to electricity production which exceeds 21.63 million TEP (or 41.84%). For its part, the production of LPG extracted in the field consumes 2.51 million TEP (or 4.85%).

Unbridled gas consumption by households

These figures for the year 2022 (which are the last to be published given that those for the year 2023 have not yet been made public) also reveal that internal gas consumption recorded an increase of 5% compared to 2021.

It must be said that natural gas is one of the main sources of energy used in Algeria. Indeed, in terms of the distribution of overall national energy consumption (including that of power plants and oil fields), natural gas represents 40% of the share of this consumption, explains Mourad Issiakhem.

Electricity comes in second place with 30%, while petroleum products represent 22%. LPG, for its part, represents 5% ahead of LNG which is at 0.33%. As for the sectors which consume the most of this energy, that of households and tertiary sectors is at 47.5%, and transport at 28.8%. These two sectors alone represent 76.3% of final energy consumption. Industry for its part comes in 3rd position with 23.7% of final consumption.

Due to this unbridled consumption of gas, Mourad Issiakhem recommends adopting behaviors in favor of the rationalization of energy consumption, avoiding the waste of this resource subsidized by the State, in all areas (residential, tertiary, transport, agriculture, industry), noting that the price of gas in Algeria “is the second cheapest in the world, after Iran”.